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Smart Moves

I just came across an IT webinar called "Smart Moves for Critical Times," being offered by i365, a Seagate company.

Smart Moves for Critical Times is a great title! My compliments to whoever came up with that.

And I think its relevance goes way beyond IT, to all other facets of organizations. Let's touch on four other applications of "smart moves for critical times."

~ Smart Moves for Job Hunters

Yesterday, I attended a talk for HR folks who are in transition, given by my networking buddy Steve Kowitz, the head of HR for a healthcare company in New Jersey. Among the many excellent points that he brought up, Steve emphasized planning, research, and networking. Here are a few of his tidbits:

- Think of your job search like a sales campaign.

- Get out of the house and join networking groups.

- Expect rejection. Stay positive. Move on.

Smart moves for sure.

~ Smart Moves for OD Practitioners

Last week, I attended the February meeting of the New Jersey Organization Development Network. The featured speaker was my old friend consultant Lucille Maddalena, who spoke about her personal journey into the field of OD. A few of my takeaways:

- Courage to take chances and seize opportunity

- Connect with people so that you build relationships and grow your network continuously

- Give to others to help them grow and succeed

- Build your brand as a trusted advisor

I always enjoy my time with this learning community, founded by Ted Nguyen.

~ Smart Moves for HR Professionals

Recently, Indian consultant and blogger Gautam Ghosh wrote an entry about the skills that HR needs to develop, including these:

- Business Acumen - "It's understanding exactly how your organization makes money and what you as a HR professional can do to impact it positively."

- Communication skills - "It sends out wrong messages about your capability when you cannot communicate an intervention/initiative's objectives and salient points in less than 50 words."

- Consulting skills - Gautam does not define this one in his posting, but I know what he means. HR professionals need to take a page from their OD colleagues and learn the phases of a consulting engagement.

~ Smart Moves for Managers

Managing in this difficult economic environment is as challenging as it gets. Everyone is anxious, including managers. So what are some smart moves?

- Communicate - Although a natural response to fear is to find a hole and hide in it, managers can't afford to do that. Fight the fear and get with your people.

- Engage - Ask others, How are you doing? What do you need? Listen to their answers and do your best to provide the support they need.

- Focus - With so much constant bad news about the economy to distract people, you need to be the focal point, the compass arrow that steadily points in the direction the organization is trying to go.

- Seek Ideas - Ask others, What are your ideas on how we can do things faster, cheaper, better? Listen to their answers and do your best to implement.

A frazzled cowboy once said, "I'm so busy, I don't know if I found a rope or lost my horse."
Clearly that dazed and confused cowboy is trying to make sense out his situation.
How often, in your life, can you relate to that?
Organizational psychologist Karl Weick wrote some very interesting stuff about human behavior and organization. In one piece, he wrote about a team of smoke-jumpers who were dropped by parachute into a major forest fire. Though highly trained, some things happened that they were unprepared for. As a result, they became disorganized and sadly most of them died.
What happened? Weick wondered if there was a failure of sensemaking. Sensemaking is the process by which people give meaning to what they are experiencing.
Weick's concept of "sensemaking" refers to the mental process of interpreting and constructing the reality we find ourselves in. So defined, we are sensemaking pretty much all the time as we go about our daily lives. Most of…

Serving customers is one of the most challenging jobs out there. You need to be a good listener, an effective communicator, a calm conflict mediator, and an analytical problem solver all rolled into one. You must be very organized and have infinite patience. Plus you need to wear a sunny disposition even on days when you don't feel like it.

Many have endeavored to capture the key ingredients in customer service, so I have decided to throw my hat into the ring as well.

I call my approach Customer Service With HEART:

H = Help and Hear - You are there to Help the customer. Plain and simple. And the first (and most important) thing you do is listen. Hear the customer fully before responding. This may be the toughest part of listening. We have to make the choice to listen, especially when we are busy, preoccupied, stressed, and distracted. When you focus on the Other, pay attention to What is being said, as well as What is not being said. This includes the non-verbal signs the person i…